imghdr Module¶
⚠️ REMOVED IN PYTHON 3.13: The imghdr module was deprecated in Python 3.11 and removed in Python 3.13.
The imghdr module detects the type of image files by examining their file headers, supporting common formats like PNG, JPEG, GIF, etc.
Complexity Reference¶
| Operation | Time | Space | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
what() |
O(1) | O(1) | Read file header |
| Type detection | O(1) | O(1) | Magic number match |
Detecting Image Types¶
Identify Image Format¶
import imghdr
# Detect from file - O(1)
image_type = imghdr.what('image.png')
print(image_type) # 'png'
# Detect from filename
image_type = imghdr.what('photo.jpg')
print(image_type) # 'jpeg'
# Detect from data - O(1)
with open('image.gif', 'rb') as f:
data = f.read(32) # Read header
image_type = imghdr.what(None, h=data)
print(image_type) # 'gif'